Howe Writing Center Consultants Address AI Challenges and Opportunities in recent Praxis publication
Generative AI tools like ChatGPT are reshaping how students approach writing, but they also present challenges for writing centers. At Miami University’s Howe Writing Center, undergraduate consultants Meredith Perkins, Ally Britton-Heitz, and Kylie Mullis explored these challenges and opportunities in their recent essay for Praxis: A Writing Center Journal.
Howe Writing Center Consultants Address AI Challenges and Opportunities in recent Praxis publication

Generative AI writing tools like ChatGPT are transforming the way students approach writing, however this rapid technological advancement has introduced significant challenges for writing centers. At Miami University’s Howe Writing Center, undergraduate consultants have observed firsthand how “technostress” has led many educators to disavow AI tools altogether.
In their recently published essay in Praxis: A Writing Center Journal, consultants Meredith Perkins, Ally Britton-Heitz, and Kylie Mullis examine the challenges and opportunities posed by AI at institutions like universities. They believe writing centers are uniquely positioned to take the lead in addressing these challenges by fostering AI education and creating supportive spaces for experimentation.
The consultants’ insights emerged from their participation in a partnership project, an initiative at the Howe Writing Center that encourages small-scale, collaborative research. Each semester, consultants are grouped into partnerships and work on research-based projects with the support of staff mentors. These projects, designed to be low-impact but high-yield, allow consultants to explore topics that contribute to writing center knowledge, improve practices and resources, and inform new policies.
This project was further developed through a roundtable discussion at the 2024 East Central Writing Center Association (ECWCA) Conference, held at Wright State University, where they discussed these issues with a large community of writing consultants.
To learn more about their experience we sat down with one of the co-authors, Kylie, for a Q&A about their essay, research, and the evolving role of writing centers in the age of AI.
What inspired you to write about this topic?
I didn't know much about AI before this project. I was extremely curious though, and I knew I would enjoy working with Ally and Meredith on it! Ally had previously been conducting research on AI given her background in information systems and analytics, and so she was the most knowledgeable on the subject going into the project. As for Meredith, given her background in policy, she was curious about the ethics of AI, intellectual property, and how university academic integrity policy would adapt to the greyness of AI authorship. Because of a combination of all of these things (and our roles as both consultants and students in this age of AI), we wanted to take a look at how these programs would impact us and our work.
This material began as a partnership project, then became an ECWCA roundtable and now is a published article! Are there any steps I'm missing there? How has the material evolved over time through these different modalities?
No missing steps! The material has greatly evolved from what we originally intended. We started by wanting to survey students to determine their attitudes about AI. Because we needed to be IRB certified to do so (and only had a few short weeks of partnership), we needed to alter our project's direction. Using the data we had originally gathered about AI Policies across Ohio universities, we could find our focus and proceed with a different aspect of the project. We ultimately ended up comparing Human vs. AI-generated feedback on written assignments, and this spurred lots of questions about how consultants are meant to handle situations where students may use AI. We came up with several case studies to discuss with our audience at ECWCA, and this roundtable discussion was where most of the ideas for our articles came from.
What was the process like for getting the article published in Praxis?
With lots of encouragement from Lizzie [Hutton] and Kate [Francis], we decided to turn our research into an article. We discovered during ECWCA that individuals in the English sphere are interested in talking and learning more about AI in the writing center. Because the subject seems to be somewhat taboo, we decided an article was the best way to provide other consultants/directors/writing center staff with information about this topic. We took our "call to action" from our ECWCA presentation and shaped our article around that. After submitting our article, Praxis came back with several revision suggestions, and after resubmission, it was approved!
Are there plans to continue this research or explore related topics?
We have done several different evolutions of this research, including a "This Is Howe We Do It" podcast episode titled "The Role of Writing Center Consultants in the Age of AI" and a follow-up article published by the ECWCA Journal titled "'Authorized Use Only': How Writing Centers Can Help Consultants Adapt to Vague AI Policies". Ally and Meredith are also doing a project this upcoming semester in which they are making their own air-gapped GPT for written online consultations.
Meredith is a senior double-majoring in Diplomacy & Global Politics and English: Creative Writing with minors in French and History.Outside of consulting, she is Miami Political Review's Editor-in-Chief, a food and opinion columnist with The Miami Student, a campus tour guide, and an freelance opinion writer.
Ally is a Business Analytics Grad Student, who studied Diplomacy and Russian Studies in undergrad at Miami. After finishing her degree, Ally will be working as a cybersecurity consultant in Chicago.
Kylie is a senior double majoring in English Literature and Professional Writing. In her free time, she is Co-President of the Miami Intercollegiate Skating team, reads a variety of fiction and fantasy novels, and loves writing poetry and short stories.